STEAM Implementation at Tower Bridge

Sponsor:	Tower Bridge (via City Bridge Foundation)
Sponsor Liaison:	Dirk Bennett, Exhibition Development Manager
Student Team:	Jan Eshun, Chris Jamieson, Bochao Xu, Will Zawada
Abstract:	We conducted research to determine the best practices for STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) implementation for Tower Bridge’s exhibits. The primary method we used was interviews, which we conducted with staff at several museums to determine the current best practices in the museum and heritage site industry. We asked questions with the aim of understanding how they implement STEAM within their organization and how they select learning objectives. We also interviewed staff at Tower Bridge with similar questions, but with the addition of questions to help understand how they operate. As a secondary means of data collection, we also observed exhibits, both at Tower Bridge, and at other STEAM museums to compare and contrast methods of conveying information. Finally, we sat in on educational workshops at Tower Bridge, to further our understanding of how they currently apply STEAM. With this, we amassed a large collection of notes taken by hand, as well as audio recordings of interviews. With the audio interviews, we used a large language model to identify patterns between interviewees, in order to supplement our own takeaways. With this, we were able to categorize our qualitative data to create appropriate suggestions for Tower Bridge.
Link:	Report Presentation

Executive Summary

Introduction and Background

In recent years in the US and UK, a decline of interest and number of skilled workers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) subjects was observed. The declining interest, shortage of skilled workers, and its following economic impact have concerned the policymakers and educators. To address the issue, the idea of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) was proposed, with the integration of the arts, aiming to increase engagement and interest with a more interdisciplinary approach. It enhances creativity and engagement, acts more relatable to individuals, and provides real-world applications on cross-subject matters. Museums and heritage sites have become the best location for STEAM applications, as they are able to offer a more flexible and creative learning environment, combining many different subjects into their exhibits and programmes. Tower Bridge has decided to incorporate STEAM leaning into their learning and interpretation objectives.

They strive to be: “an exemplar visitor attraction driven by social values, that excites, inspires, connects and educates everyone we reach and encounter” (City Bridge Foundation. (2025a)). To achieve this goal, Tower Bridge staff are currently in the process of developing several planning documents including a long-term development plan, Tower Bridge in Motion, an audience development plan, and a spatial master plan. In parallel, a new project, Nose Bolts, is currently under development that will explore its practical application and will open in late 2025 through early 2026. Tower Bridge in Motion aims to lay out Tower Bridge’s foundational objectives to provide an exceptional visitor experience. It also establishes a new framework for Tower Bridge to distinguish between STEM and STEAM.

The Nosebolts project, is a STEAM pilot project, which proposes the first project Tower Bridge will pursue within the STEAM focus outlined in Tower Bridge in Motion. It will support Tower Bridge in Motion’s STEAM objectives by helping to “embody a STEAM approach to learning and engagement, using public art to promote learning and engagement around engineering. The installation will be a result of a collaboration between engineers, artists, and the Bridge’s Interpretation, Learning, and Marketing teams” (City Bridge Foundation. (2025b)).

For this research project, we want to investigate: “What are the best practices for Tower Bridge to strengthen its applications of STEAM interpretation and education?” We began by investigating the best STEAM practices of other museums of heritage sites within the US and the UK. These evaluations of some of these existing STEAM exhibitions offer a valuable foundation for developing new exhibitions. This, paired with insights into the best practices for development are crucial background required to have a complete understanding of what goes into a modern museum.

Methods

With the overarching goal to assess how STEAM concepts could be best implemented at Tower Bridge, we created three objectives:

1. Investigate the best STEAM practices in museums
2. Assess STEAM implementation options at Tower Bridge
3. Develop preliminary STEAM concepts, applications, and recommend future development

Within these objectives the primary method for data collection was interviews. For the first objective we interviewed staff from many museums, primarily focusing on interpretation and education team members. These interviews focused on how they apply STEAM topics, why they do or do not prefer STEAM over STEM, and what past exhibits or programmes have been successful and why. On top of this, when it was possible we visited the museums first hand to see these applications first hand.

The next objective, which is to assess STEAM implementation options at Tower Bridge, followed a similar procedure. Prior to initiating interviews, we went through the exhibits at tower bridge one by one and filled out a form assessing exhibits based on the number of STEAM topics present, interactivity, and interdisciplinary approach. Afterwards we interviewed members of Tower Bridge’s education team and attended their workshops to further understand what areas of STEAM are already covered by their programming, and what areas they wished to include more.

With the prior two objectives completed, the last step was to develop preliminary STEAM concepts. This requires as complete of an understanding as possible of the best practices in industry and the current offerings at Tower Bridge to be effective. For each recommendation, information was compiled from the previous two objectives and our interviews. Each of these, along with slides outlining our findings were presented to staff at Tower Bridge on Tuesday, the 24th of June 2025.

Results

Our research sought to provide an overview of STEAM-based education as employed in museums and heritage sites across the United Kingdom and beyond. By conducting interviews with museum and heritage site staff, we identified the following key principles of effective museum education.

1. Provide broad, cross-disciplinary perspectives for exhibits to encourage visitors to draw connections to their own lives and experiences
2. Allowing users to interact rather than observe
3. Allowing learning outcomes to be tailored to the individual through inquiry-based learning
4. Ensuring accessibility to a broad range of visitors by providing content in multiple mediums and with a low background knowledge requirement

Along with interviewing other museum/heritage site staff we sought to gain an understanding of the goals at Tower Bridge and the current state of exhibits and educational programming. While the educational programming at Tower Bridge was excellent, we found that there are significant areas for improvement in exhibit design and presentation. We identified a lack of interactivity, inquiry-based learning, and interdisciplinary approach in some of the current offerings.

Cross-disciplinary approach, interactivity, inquiry-based learning, and accessibility is drawn to be the three best STEAM practices from interviews conducted on other museums and heritage sites. The cross-disciplinary approach integrates knowledge and methods from different fields and subjects, particularly science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics, to create more connected learning opportunities. Interactivity encourages engagement by making the guest a part of the exhibit. Inquiry based learning promotes the audiences to explore themselves, ask questions, and make their own discoveries based on personal interests and connections. Accessibility ensures engagement and understanding with all audiences at different age levels, knowledge backgrounds, social groups, physical accessibility, and cultural backgrounds.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Overall, to ensure Tower Bridge is best able to meet the current educational moment, we recommend centering engagement through interactivity and inquiry in all of Tower Bridge’s exhibits. With the increased importance placed on STEAM in recent years Tower Bridge has begun updating exhibits and programming to remain abreast with current educational standards. To assist in this, Tower Bridge partnered with Worcester Polytechnic Institute to provide analysis and recommendations for existing and future projects.